Book Three: Model Daughter
by savanasi
Summary: Kim embarks upon a journey across to Europe to find her mother and eventual peace. The final book in the Model Trilogy.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** Not mine. :)

**A/N:** I'm back! I'm sorry it's taken me this long but I've been working on how exactly I want the end to unravel. But I feel good about the direction we're heading in now. Quite, quite good. Though I think I'll have to alternate updates between this and Miss Imprint to make sure I don't drop the ball on either one.

I've been consistently amazed at how many people message/review about when this story will be updated. You guys are too marvelous for words. (Though I hope these will suffice.)

Unfortunately it will be a little bit before we see Jared again but that is the nature of the story. I've taken a few liberties with Jane that are also necessary. But it'll all come to light soon enough.

Anyway I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think. :)

-S

P.S. I will source some additional research I've done in the epilogue that has already been written but until then it'll have to wait in hopes of preserving some mystery. ;)

* * *

><p><strong>Model Daughter<strong>

Chapter 1: Hopeless Place

_Now we're standing side by side_

_As your shadow crosses mine_

_What it takes to come alive_

_It's the way I'm feeling I just can't deny_

_But I've gotta let it go._

_We found love, Rihanna ft. Calvin Harris_

* * *

><p>I could see him through the trees. His shadow was long and languid as it stretched across the clearing towards me. He was just out of reach, running in circles, in wide, long circles getting closer and closer.<p>

I wanted to call out to him. But I couldn't. Something was holding me back. Like a weight on my chest, compressing my lungs so there was no breath left in them, no voice.

_Jared_. I said in my mind. _Please come back. It's not what I thought it would be._

But he just kept running his circles.

And then the moon shifted, her pale face shimmering fully in the grey Washington sky and the shadow shifted, shrank somehow. And four legs became two. Wolf became human.

But it wasn't Jared any longer.

It was someone else entirely. And as their fanged, bloody face leaped out of the shadows, I awoke.

* * *

><p>I stifled his name with the pillow beneath my chest but I couldn't keep in the heaving breaths. It was like all of the air in the room wasn't enough to satisfy me in that moment, I needed more.<p>

Blinking away the sleep and the vampires that haunted my dreams, I took in the anonymous hotel room. It was spacious, clean—something I was eminently thankful for, and Spartan. There was nothing indicative of our stay here. And there would be nothing here tomorrow when we left for another nameless, faceless city in Europe. I couldn't see anything but what wasn't there. All I could notice was that my mother was no where to be found.

Jane and I had bounced around cities for the last three weeks and with each day I grew more and more certain that the scent we were chasing had long since evaporated. We had yet to meet a vampire let alone one who would lead us to my mother. And yet Jane promised, with impossible confidence that we were almost there, that it would only be a few more days, a few more cities and we would find her.

London had been cold and empty and Paris even more so. By the time we hit Spain and Portugal I was certain I'd made a mistake and now here in Moscow I wasn't sure that I cared anymore.

My mother was gone. Nina in her charge and the hope I had had when we left on this journey had long since expired.

It was dark still. The curtains were drawn tightly—they were always drawn tightly when we traveled. But I could tell from the way the edges didn't glow.

Jane was gone. She disappeared at night, always appearing just before the dawn, her face satisfied and her lips stained red. But her eyes were always that cloudy mahogany, never amber, never red, forever in between.

I felt restless. I needed to get out. I needed air—there wasn't enough in this room.

I slipped a hooded sweater over my tank top and stuffed my feet into fur-lined boots. It would be frigid outside now, but I didn't care. I didn't think about what I would do when I got out.

I just wanted to be alone and away from this hotel room.

The door opened before I could get to it.

Jane.

"Where are you going?" She slid gracefully in and shut the door behind her. I didn't miss the click of the lock.

I shrugged. "I need air. I can't sleep."

She nodded before tilting her head towards the balcony. "It's not safe out there—you should stay here."

"I'll just be a minute."

She watched me for a long moment. "You should stay here."

"What's wrong? Did you find something?"

"I just think it's safer here." She said, her words measured and careful. "Please?"

I scratched the back of my head and then caved. Sometimes with Jane it was easier just to give in. But something was different tonight. She was different. "Okay. I'll be on the balcony."

She nodded before heading into the bathroom for a shower.

I waited until she shut the door behind her and the water turned on to grab my phone from the table next to me and then stepped out.

* * *

><p>It was colder than I had thought it would be. Far colder. The city was old and decadent; the kind grandeur that you didn't see in the United States. It was breathtaking. But I didn't have any breath to give.<p>

Far below me I saw a couple walking drunkenly towards the bus station, their arms looped around each other and their breath escaping them in a cloud of white billowy air that flickered in and out of sight until it became to thin to be seen.

I wanted that. I wanted to disappear sometimes. To forget about all of this. To just be.

I missed those days in the forest, just wandering silently with him, and just existing. I felt my fingers dialing a familiar number almost of their own accord and then the phone was ringing and I was waiting with baited breath.

"Hello?" His voice was rough—maybe it was sleep. Maybe it was something else. "Hello?"

But I couldn't. I had left him. I had to be strong enough. But I just needed to hear his voice for a second.

His voice grew fainter then, as if he was answering someone else in the room. "I don't know—it's the same as last time."

"Hello? Is anyone there?" He was back again, and then I heard him exhale. "Hello?"

I slid my finger over the end button. And then I froze.

"Kim?"

_Shit_. _Hang up Kim, hang up._

"Kim, is that you?" He was quieter, far quieter. "Kim, if it's you, I—"

I hung up.

And then I stumbled back against the frigid stone wall behind me, and slid to the iced balcony floor. I stared dumbly at the phone in my hand. He'd guessed.

I'd been too selfish again. I should've left him alone. But I couldn't. And now he was probably remembering me again.

It was the last time, I promised myself. It was the absolute last time. I smashed the phone against the rough cement floor and then again and then again until it fell to pieces and there was nothing left to break.

* * *

><p>"Kim?" Jane stepped out, her slim, prepubescent body wrapped in a towel. She was steaming slightly from the hot water and I knew, just for this moment, she would feel alive. But it wouldn't last long.<p>

"Hey." I stood.

She glanced at the tattered iPhone and her lips tightened. "The best thing you can do is forget him."

"I know." I crossed my arms, frustrated. "I know. I just—"

"You were weak." She offered, annoyed and then settled on the edge of the balcony, balancing unafraid above a five story drop. Then again, she probably wouldn't hurt herself if she did fall. "You must remember why we are here."

"I know."

"We will find her." She said, her voice quieter, gentler. "We will find your mother."

I tilted my head towards her. "How are you so sure?"

She ran a hand through her wet locks, already drying perfectly in curled ringlets. "I have forever to find her." She smiled wryly.

"But I don't." I reminded her and she threw her head back in a delighted laugh.

"You could." She bit her lip suggestively. "It would be so easy." She ran a hand across her neck, flirtatious. "All it takes is one, little _bite_."

"I'm okay, thanks." I replied, dryly before collapsing onto the patio set that had been laid out here. "I'm starting to lose hope." I confessed suddenly. I'd never said it out loud before. It was strangely empowering.

She didn't reply for a long time. She just stared out into the snow covered streets of Moscow, looking past the colored turrets of the St Basil's Cathedral.

"Jane?"

"Hmm."

"What happened to you?"

She looked at me surprised. We'd never had this conversation. We'd never even broached it but tonight I was feeling braver than I had in a long time.

"What do you mean?" Her voice was careful again.

I spread my fingers out on the glass tabletop before me and drew idly in the frost. "How did you become the way you are?"

She let out a slow breath. "Why?"

"I just…I just want to know." I tilted my head towards her. "Please?"

"It was a long time ago." She swung her legs around so that she faced away from me. "It was a _very _long time ago."

I leaned forward, entranced. She was so mysterious—she'd always been reticent about herself, but forever enticing me to tell me more about her. It was fascinating to have the tables turned.

"I grew up not far from here, but Russia was different then." She smiled. "I had three elder sisters and a single younger brother. My father was an important man and traveled often with my mother. My siblings and I were left with our governess." She trialed off and clenched the stone frustrated.

I had the distinct impression that she rarely spoke of her own past. She seemed like she didn't know how to continue.

"When did it happen?"

She relaxed slightly. "It was in the year 1914. Three days before my thirteenth birthday."

"You seem older." I observed vaguely, unsure of what to say.

She laughed. "Immortality tends to have that affect."

I smiled and motioned for her to continue.

"My father was a dreamer, certain that he could make change in Russia, that he could embalm her wounds. But my mother, she was more practical. She knew that change was coming—that our world was one that we had held on to for too long." Jane let out a long slow breath.

"She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. As a result, there were many men who worshiped her. One of them was a holy man. He had traveled into the darkest and wildest corners of Russia and with him brought secrets of another kind of people: one who could live through anything, even _death_." She shrugged. "He persuaded my mother that it was the only way to save us, and she believed him."

"So he turned you and your family?"

She nodded. "My mother was turned first and then us, one by one. She conjured reasons for our absence so that we could adapt to our new life."

"Your father was okay with this?"

She shook her head. "No—he would never have agreed to it. But my mother thought that if we had all turned then he would have no choice. He would join us.

"My younger brother Alec was the last of us to turn. It was the year 1918 and he had just had his thirteenth birthday. I had just returned from Paris where I had spent my recuperation and I was determined to prevent it from happening to him. He was innocent, my brother. I had wanted to protect him. And so I told my father the night Alec was to be turned. I confessed everything.

"Together we found them, but it was too late. Alec was writhing on the bed when we found them, crying so desperately for me to end it. But I could not. I could do nothing for him." She licked her lips, her teeth glistening. "My father flew into a terrible rage and he had them killed, my mother and my three elder sisters." Her voice was almost mechanical now, devoid of feeling and energy. "And he would have killed us but I escaped with Alec."

"Did you ever see him again? Your father?" I was so sad for her, I was so desperately sad for her.

"No." Her shoulders were hunched far past her ears now, frozen. "He shot himself."

"I'm sorry." I breathed. "I'm so terribly sorry."

She turned then, her smile wretched and somber. "Why?"

"You lost your family."

She shook her head. "Alec is my family. I have no need of any other."

I didn't know what to say to that, so I didn't say anything. And together we sat in the embers of her history until the dawn painted the city pink and Jane disappeared into the darkness of our hotel room.

* * *

><p>I slept most of the day away. It was seven when Jane informed me that I should pack my bags. We were leaving again.<p>

We took a taxi to the Paveletsky Rail Terminal and then from there the Aeroexpress train took us to the Domodedovo International Airport. A private jet waited for us on an isolated runway and as always the pilot's seat was behind locked doors.

Jane instructed me to settle myself while she instructed our flight crew that we would be leaving shortly.

It was no until the jet had lifted it's wheel's off the tarmac that I realized I had never asked where we were headed.

"Water?" A young woman with long curly black hair offered me a bottle of Evian.

"Yes, thank you." I twisted the lid off and drank.

"Of course." She started to walk away but I grabbed her arm, intending to ask for a napkin and then froze as the warmth of her skin shocked my own. She was human. "You're _human_?"

She looked at me blankly. "Yes."

"I mean, how are you allowed—do you know what she is?" I was stuttered, stumbling.

She just watched me. "I don't understand what you mean. Can I get you anything? Peanuts?"

"No." I said faintly, shaking my head. "I'm allergic. Thank you."

She nodded before receding into the cockpit, warily avoiding Jane who stepped out at the same time.

She was human. And she didn't know anything. Or she was afraid.

I couldn't decide.

Jane sat down across from me, folding her legs demurely to the side and peering out the window. "Sleep. It will be a long flight."

She flipped open a panel in the wall and dimmed the lights and slid it shut again. "Sleep." She repeated.

I slid my eyes closed most of the way but I couldn't fall asleep. I watched her instead, shifting so she wouldn't notice.

She waited a while and then she pulled out a phone from her coat pocket. Someone must have picked up because her entire face relaxed and she smiled. "Alec." She breathed.

And then I let her voice speaking in quiet, delicate Russian lull me to sleep.

* * *

><p>I was at home, on the highway that stretched from the Washington driving at 60 no 70 now 80 miles per an hour in my father's Buggati. I'd never been this fast before but with the top down on the convertible it was incredible. The wind was whipping through my hair.<p>

But I wasn't alone.

He was staring out the window, his long legs stretched out before him and his right arm angled over the window frame. His hair was longer and it slid back and forth in the wind. "We need to go faster."

"Jared?"

"Come on, just a little faster." His voice was urgent but he wouldn't look at me, he was focused on the horizon.

"Okay." I heard myself say as I floored the pedal and tipped the speedometer over into the triple digits. The scenery turned into a blur, I could only make out the road ahead, passing under us like a long silver river. "Where are we going?"

He turned to me then, his eyes glistening dark and black. "Don't you know?" He sounded genuinely shocked.

"No—I'm just driving." I gripped the wheel tighter. I couldn't feel the rubber beneath my fingers. They were too cold, frozen. "Where are we going?"

He laughed, his lips sliding into an easy grin and he winked at me. "Just trust me. I'll let you know when we get there."

"But where are we going?" I insisted.

He just shook his head. "Faster, Kim. We need to get there faster." And then he turned his head away again, his eyes searching the woods.

"Okay, I'm trying." I pressed my foot down harder but the car was getting harder and harder to control, and my hands were burning on the rubber. "Jared! I'm losing control of this!"

"We need to go faster." He repeated, his eyes on me now, urging me on. "You can do it, Kim, I know—"

But what he knew I would not find out because I was jerked awake as the plane touched down on the tarmac and the engines boomed in reverse as they slowed us down to taxi.

I gripped the hand rests, my knuckles turning white and blinked my way back to reality. Jane just watched me demurely from across a polished, wooden divider. "Good." She said, "You're awake."

"Yeah." My voice was shaky. I could still see him sitting next to me, he was so close. "Where are we?"

She smiled widely. "_Italia_."


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **Not mine. :)

**A/N**: I'm sorry this is so long in coming but I've been really busy with family stuff the last few weeks. Hopefully the updates pick up now that I've got some time to myself. I hope you guys enjoy this, I've been re-working it a bit and I'm not sure if I love how it came out but I don't want to delay any further.

Anyway, enjoy! And I'll be posting more soon!

Let me know what you think!

-S

P.S. It's the year of the dragon! :)

P.P.S. If you recognize this song, it was on Vampire Diaries last week which is where I first heard it. And I've been listening to it since. It's magic; pure, unadulterated, _magic. _Give it a go.

**Model Daughter**

Chapter 2: Goodbye

_The day between the soil and the sky_

_An emptiness, a void, a heaviness, a sigh_

_But I know you will make it through alive_

_Cause you never said goodbye._

_-Between, Courrier_

* * *

><p>"Do you remember everything I've told you?" Jane asked again, her voice slightly frantic. "It's important, Kim."<p>

"Yes, I think so." I breathed, my mind flickering over the history lesson she'd been giving me over the two hour car ride to Volterra from the airport. "But why is it so important that I agree with Aro?"

"I've already told you." She groaned frustrated. "It's imperative."

"So really, you didn't already tell me." I sassed, slightly amused at her annoyance. Jane was so easily riled up sometimes. The warm, humid weather so far south of Russia, near the Mediterranean was starting to liven my spirits. And Jane had promised. Italy was the last resort. Here, we _would_ find my mother. I wasn't sure how she knew that or why but I found increasingly that I didn't care. I just wanted to finish this, all of this and go home.

If I even had one anymore. But I shook my head, the time for that would come when this was complete.

Jane didn't respond but her fingers tightening their grip on the steering wheel and my eyes widened as a long crack appeared in the leather coating. Sometimes, as impossible as it sounded, I forgot Jane was a vampire, that she was dangerous. That it would take only one single misstep on my part and she would kill me as easily as ask me how I slept.

The trees passed in great groves and orchards and here and there I could even make out the plump grapes that hung off long, rambling vines in the vineyards. They were unbearably ripe, pregnant with juice, well past their due.

We rode in silence the rest of the way, and drew into an underground parking garage near midnight. My heart started to race as Jane pulled the cark into park and shut off the engine, her smile wider than I'd ever seen it.

But somehow, I couldn't help but feel that it wasn't a good thing.

* * *

><p>Two guards, swathed in deep crimson robes, welcomed us silently into a wide stone hall. Soft, flickering light—falsified candle light shone from above, illuminating everything in a curious, almost magical light and softening and an otherwise austere corridor.<p>

"Aro expects us." Jane observed calmly and raised a hand. "We won't be needing you any longer." The guards scattered, quicker than I expected. It was almost like they were afraid of her.

My eyes followed Jane nervously. I couldn't help but feel like she'd left out some large part of the puzzle, filling in the ends and leaving the middle bare.

"Jane?"

She didn't turn around. She just raised a hand behind her and flicked her fingers forward, like the tongue of a snake. "Come."

The door at the close of the corridor opened inwards without our assistance. And as I walked in, I began to understand more about Jane than I had in any other moment.

It was a court, a vampire court, complete with three kings, set on three great wooden thrones and their consorts lingering behind them. It felt like I'd walked into a painting where all of the characters were strangely waxen and drawn, only the faux-firelight flickering against their skin adding humanity to them.

"Jane, my _darling_." The central king stood, his arms opening widely. "Welcome home, at last."

Jane bowed. "Aro."

"And you have not come alone." Aro turned his smile to me, his teeth white and perfect as he beckoned me forward.

I didn't move. Because I realized in that earth-shattering moment that somehow, I'd fallen off the path I was meant to go on. And it only took a single glance into Aro eyes to tell me that.

Because _they_ were red. _Blood_ red.

And _I_ was in a trap.

Aro's eyes tightened, but only for a moment, and then they were as open and welcoming as they had ever been. "You must be so curious, Miss Connweller. You must be _so_ curious." The way he spoke was feral, as if he bit each word as it came out.

"I'm looking for my mother." I said instead. I didn't have time for games or decorum. I straightened my shoulders. My parents had both told me good posture more than anything else won over a court. I needed to get out as soon as possible. As long as I still could.

"Of course." Aro said, his voice just a whisper. "But my dear, you are all business—perhaps you would care to rest, before we get into all of that."

Was this what Jane had meant? But now everything was different. I didn't know if I could trust her or anyone. So I shook my head. "With all due respect, sir, I would rather not. I'm only here for her."

He laughed, delighted, pressing the tips of his fingers together. "Such determination, it is _delicious._" He turned then, facing the two men on either side of him. "Wouldn't you agree?"

They didn't reply but he was undeterred. "Well, then Miss Connweller, what are you prepared to offer me for your mother?"

I could feel my eyes widen as I turned an accusatory look on Jane. "I didn't realize it would be a bargain."

"A bargain! No, no my dear—I was just thinking as a favor, out of the goodness of your _heart_."

"I don't understand what you're—"

"You see you are not the only one to ask for her." Aro grinned. "Your father has also asked for her—and you." He smiled.

It was amazing how everything I'd wanted just months before could be so different from what I wanted now. The thought of my parents anywhere together made me sick. Dad wasn't who he used to be, he was a shell, a vapid, deranged shell and my mother wasn't safe with him.

It was all a set up. It was a ruse that Dad had set up so that he could turn me too. And they were all in on it. Even Jane.

But there was a way out of this. There had to be. I just needed time to figure it out. "You're going to let them kill me." I said, dully. But the realization didn't have as much effect as I thought it would have. Or maybe I was just in shock.

"My _darling_." He breathed, appalled. "Not _kill_. I am allowing them to resurrect you, to give you _life_."

I backed away in horror, but there was no escape. Here below the ground, I was ensconced in a stone castle. It wasn't a court, I realized, looking around, it was a _grave. "No._" I said, but my voice came low and quiet. So I said it again. "No." And then for good measure, "thank you."

He smiled then, maleficent. "Miss Connweller, it is not so much as a choice as a courtesy that I extend."

I licked my lips. And then an idea sparked. He hadn't said my mother was here. Just that my father was asking after her. He'd gotten me through Jane but he wouldn't be able to catch my mother. And she wasn't alone. No one here knew that.

"But it is a choice. It's just not mine." I licked my lips again, taking comfort from soothing the roughened skin. I was thirsty I realized, incredibly so. "You have to choose between my parents—my father wants me turned and my mother wants me alive." I stepped forward, suddenly feeling victorious. "So, Aro, who do you choose?"

Aro loved to play victor and victim, but never villain I realized as I watched his face remain passive. He wouldn't break his façade for anything. He just ran his long, tapered fingers along the arm of his throne. Back and forth, back and forth.

"My mother's not here, is she?" I prodded again, certain I'd cornered him now.

"Your parents are _marvelously_ talented, Miss Connweller." Aro said finally, his eyes hard for the first time. "I'm not sure if you were aware." He sat down then, flashing his teeth. "Your father, for instance, well he can put an idea in your head and make you believe it was yours all along. All he has to do is _touch_ you." He leaned forward. "It was why I only had to send a scout to retrieve you, not to persuade you to come. Your father did that."

He was positively grinning now as he finished. "It is also why I needn't bring your mother here. Because she's not alone out there, is she?" He didn't wait for an answer. "_Nina_ will bring her right along, just as soon as we're ready for her."

It was all a trap. It had been a trap all along. And I'd been the one to set it.

"Jane will show you to your room." Aro smiled, kind and gentle once more. "I hope you'll find it to your liking."

My shoulders dipped in defeat as Jane's iron fingers against my back lead me to my room.

* * *

><p>I was in a car again, driving towards the wooded horizon. But it was familiar. I knew instinctively that he would be here.<p>

And he was, facing forward, his face determined, focused. "Faster, Kim." Jared repeated, the words were the whisper of a memory now. I'd heard him before.

But I couldn't make myself speak now. All I could do was drink in the sight of him, hungrily, desperately. He was there, so close that I could touch him, feel the wrinkles in his shirt, the stubble on his jaw, the soft press of his fingers against mine.

"Jared." I breathed. And then my vision turned blurry, and I felt the car slide to a stop on the shoulder. "Jared—I can't do it—"

He turned to me, his lips pulling apart as he smiled. "Of course you can." His fingers were in mine then, encasing them in feverish heat. "_You_ can."

"They have her." I said. "Or they will. And they have me—and I don't know what to do." My voice was breaking, the words catching in my parched throat as I tried to force them out. "Jared, I'm stuck."

His eyes were soft when he replied. "There's something you haven't thought of isn't there?"

I blinked, shaking my head. "I don't think—"

"There is." He insisted before looking behind us. "_Kim_." His voice was urgent. "We have to go."

I felt myself turn the car on, the smooth purr of the engine revving as I slid smoothly back onto the road that stretched forever. "Jared—"

"Faster, Kim." He was facing forward again. "Faster, _he's_ coming."

"Who? Who's coming?" I begged, but I couldn't look back. Alongside us I could hear paws pounding into the dirt floor and a strange gong, chiming once, twice... I jerked awake on the fifth.

* * *

><p>I felt cold, shockingly so as I sat up in bed. It was still dark out but I could hear the tolling of the bells that had woken me. Dawn was coming.<p>

The walls were medieval, stone and cement, hardly the fully heated rooms I was used to. But the bed in the room I'd been taken to was as soft as any.

There was a fireplace, sprawling and magnificent, like everything in their world down here. It was unlit. There was wood though, and matches too, long and tapered, their tips blood red.

I slipped from the sheets, brushing the hair that had fallen free of my braids behind my ears and blinking. It was still dark out. It must have been very early here but back home it would be nearly noon.

The match lit easily and violently. I watched wide eyed as the flames burned quickly down the wood, eating their way down towards my fingers.

I dropped it before it got too close into the open pit and watched as the woods, doused in perfumed oil, burst into flame.

The rush of heat was welcome and sat down before the fire, my toes extended to make the most of the flickering warmth.

"Kim."

I started, looking behind me and there in the doorway, her arm perched on the knob was Jane and her tired smile. Her blond hair was curled and beautiful about her face. Her eyes were red, vibrant.

I didn't stand, I just turned back to the flames. I probably should have been afraid of her, but I wasn't. I knew I was safe, for no at least. "What do you want?"

"I thought you might be hungry." She cleared her throat.

"I thought you didn't care." I threw another match into the fire, feeling mutinous. I couldn't believe I'd fallen for her act. According to Aro it wasn't entirely my fault but still, what had I been thinking leaving with a stranger to traipse after my mother across Europe.

"I didn't have a choice." She whispered, her voice halfway between guilty and innocent.

I turned around, narrowing my eyes at her. "Was all of it a lie? That whole sob story about your mother turning your family."

She looked stricken then. "No! It was the truth."

"Then how could you do this to me." I shook my head. "I don't understand you."

"It's not the same." She protested.

"_How_ is it not the same?" I was furious now.

"Because," she whispered, and her eyes flared red. "You are still human. You still have time."

I rolled my eyes. "To do what?" I exclaimed. "I'm in castle full of vampires who can hear everything I'm doing." I shook my head. "Besides, do you really think I'd believe anything you said, now?"

Her mouth gaped for a moment as she searched for words that wouldn't come. In the end, she wilted, her shoulders losing their prim posture. She put the tray she'd brought in on the bed. "You're not the only one with loved ones in peril, Kim."

I didn't reply. I just glared into the flames until I heard the light tap of her flats against the floor and the click of the lock as she shut the door behind her.

* * *

><p>The fire flared in front of me, and it was the color of Jared's eyes when he was ecstatic, a brown so warm it was almost amber.<p>

_There was something you missed, isn't there?_

But it was a dream. He couldn't actually have been talking to me, could he? Then again, I didn't think vampire and wolves existed either, until a few months ago.

_Faster, Kim. He's coming_.

No he couldn't, it was just a dream.

Mom used to say that dreams were memories after you had had time to process them. Free of everything that didn't matter so you could understand what did.

But who could Jared have been talking about?

Who would be chasing him?

It must have been a vampire. My father was the obvious choice.

_There was something that you missed, isn't there?_

Nina, Jared, Paul and I had gone to those woods. And out of the four of us, only two of us made it out.

Nina got turned and Paul must have fallen prey to my father. That was the only thing that made sense and accounted for his behavior.

That day when Jared and I had had breakfast, he'd told me that Paul hadn't been himself. And he hadn't, it had been my father, filling his head with thoughts that weren't his own.

Poor Paul was as much a victim as the rest of us.

So _what _was I missing?

My stomach grumbled and I looked back that the plate that Jane had left unhappily. But even though it felt wrong to take food from my captors, if I was going to escape I needed to eat. So I pulled the steaming soup and freshly baked, buttered bread towards me.

"It figures they'd serve me stuff that looks like blood," I muttered under my breath, smelling the steam in relief as I identified it as tomato bisque. The liquid was familiar as it coated the back of my throat.

When I was seven, my parents got the flu simultaneously and were stuck in bed the weekend we'd been ready to go see Cirque du Soleil. I remember walking into their room, decked from head to toe in purple and green, with a jester hat on my head to boot to see them lying on their bed, intertwined.

There was a mountain of tissues on either side of the bed and they were asleep, the bruised purple bags beneath their eyes emphasized in the light.

I'd gone to my room and changed into pajamas and then called the circus to tell them that my parents were sick and ask them if they could, please, tell our friends.

The man who answered had grumbled, until I mentioned my name. My parents had bought four hundred tickets for their birthday party. They were born the same day of the same month of the same year. He apologized profusely after that and told me he would have the guests told upon arrival.

I went into the kitchen after that and made us tomato bisque and grilled cheese and we sat snuggled in bed watching the show from home.

And from that year on and every year after, their birthday we would climb into bed together, watching the incredible acrobats in Cirque du Soleil with bowls of steaming tomato bisque and grilled cheese.

But they weren't here now, I realized as I climbed into bed and pulled the bowl onto my lap, taking comfort in the heat it provided.

Because no matter how beautiful and alive they seemed, they weren't. They were frozen, forever stuck in the shadows. And they weren't my parents. Not anymore. I'd never have _them_ back. No matter how much I wished I would.

"Happy Birthday Mom, Dad." I lifted up a spoonful and toasted the empty air around me. "I miss you."

"Thank you darling."

I jerked, wincing as I felt the soup spill on the sheets. It burned against the skin of my thighs as it seeped through my jeans but I couldn't make myself move. Just wait, frozen. Some small insane part of me convinced that if I didn't move then he wouldn't be able to see me.

"Kimmy, aren't you happy to see me?" He crooned from the doorway as he stepped inside the room, the fitted black suit that he wore making him seem almost regal. "I've been waiting so long."

"What are you doing here?" I slid out slowly from the bed, backing away until my back was against the opposite wall. "I thought I was safe until Mom—"

"I would never hurt you, _Kimmy._" He let his long fingers rest on the wooden footboard. They tapped one after another in slowed succession. "On the contrary, I want to make sure you're free from harm. Nothing can hurt you once you're like this."

"But I don't want—"

He laughed, interrupting me with a sound so foreign that it sent a shiver down my back. "_Want_? What could you possibly know of wants, you're only sixteen?"

"Exactly." I breathed out, using the solidity of the cold stone wall to keep me grounded, to keep me focused. I needed to use this situation to my advantage. I needed to learn more. "I'm _only_ sixteen. If I change then that's all I'll ever be."

He paused, his face freezing and for a moment I thought I'd broken through, that he'd just never thought of it that way. But it was only a moment and then he was the same once more. "No, no, dear, you won't need any more. Because you'll have _forever_."

"With you." I cut in curtly. "I'll have forever with _you_ and Mom but what about my friends, my teachers—"But I cut myself off. I'd almost said Jared. His name had been on the tip of my tongue but I'd just reeled him back. To say his name would be damning.

I needn't have worried however. He saw through me. "This is about that _pet_ of yours. The one that was ready to _rip_ through me." He bared his teeth. "And you didn't stand up for your poor old _Dad_, did you? You chose him over us, over _me_!"

"It's not that." I said, "That's done."

"It's not, is it Kimmy?" And suddenly there was a vicious new light in his eyes, that I didn't understand and that terrified me even more. "You still feel it don't you? The _imprint_. It draws on you day and night and tortures you to no end that you're not with him." He smirked. "I imagine you even _dream_ about him."

I froze at that and then forced myself to smooth out. There was _no_ way he could know about my dreams. It wasn't possible.

And he didn't because he didn't linger. He just winked. "I can take it all away, with one _little_ bite." He sat then, suddenly weary. "Don't you want that, _darling_. All that ache, all that pain, it all goes away, just like that."

And for a moment, a wild, desperate moment I thought about how I would feel, free of all of this guilt that Jared was tied to me and sadness that I'd lost my parents. It would all be over. But it would be better.

But not for him, I realized then, coming back down. Jared would still feel it. At least now I was alive and maybe one day...maybe one day things would be different and he and I might find our way to each other. But if I turned, then it would be over and it would kill him.

"That's not escape, Dad." I looked him full on the eye. "That's _giving up_. Something which _you_ told me not to do."

"Well aren't you just the _model_ daughter?" He snapped snidely before taking a breath and taking control once more. And then in the blink of an eye he was there, against me, so close I could smell the acidity of his breath and see the blood stained red of his tongue. "Think about what I've said, _darling_. You'll have _all the time in the world._"

And then he was gone and I slid down the wall, my chest heaving as the terror I'd been surprising came rushing in. My eyes caught on the spilled soup, the stain spreading greedily and painting the pale white cotton the color of blood.

* * *

><p>"Faster, Kim."<p>

I'd heard those words so many times that I almost couldn't stand them now. They were forever the same, losing any meaning. And he never answered me. And why on earth couldn't he drive if he was so eager to get there, I thought half hysterically as I reached over and sought his hand.

"Jared?" I slipped my fingers through his but his hand was lifeless. Almost as if he couldn't feel me at all.

"Faster, Kim." He insisted, his eyes wide and nervous. But it was different this time, he wouldn't look at me, he wouldn't answer me.

"Okay, okay." I couldn't stand the desperation in his voice. So I pressed my foot down and the ferocious roar of the engine gave me strength. "Jared, where are we going?"

Maybe it was something else that had triggered it. "You'll know." He said. "You'll know when we get there."

And I could have screamed with joy, he was talking to me again. "How, how will I know?"

But he didn't answer, he just stared forward.

I felt myself begin to wilt, it had been coincidence. "_Please_, look at me." I begged, letting the car slow down in desperation. If nothing else, _that_ had caught his attention last time. "_Jared_." I was tugging now on his fingers. "_Please, _what's happening?"

His lips tightened and for a second I thought I felt his fingers flex but then they were as flaccid as ever. "I don't remember." He whispered finally, quietly under his breath almost as if he were speaking to himself. "I _can_'t remember."

* * *

><p>My eyes snapped open. That was it. <em>That<em> was the thing I'd forgotten.

I'd been wrong before. Nina and Paul weren't the only ones who didn't come back that night. Jared had left me there in the cabin and the next day he'd told me he couldn't remember getting home. Couldn't remember leaving. Couldn't remember anything.

Something had happened to him in those woods. I swallowed heavily, something or some_one_.


End file.
